Super Time Force is an incredibly fun game. It is a 16 bit style side-scroller where you can control multiple playable characters with different weapons and abilities. A time traveling mechanic and a hilarious story make this game a fantastic title. It is a shame that it lacks any kind of multiplayer however the single player performance is so strong that it is easy to look past this minor disappointment. It is fresh and invigorating to have a game make fun of itself and not take itself too seriously. Its paradox laden plot serves as a blank canvas for Capy to make a fun, nonsensical game. Super Time Force conveys amazing sense of nostalgia for anyone who grew up playing the NES and with likeable and preposterous characters it’s worth the download.

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Super Time Force Review

Super Time Force gives you a brief, paradox filled, introduction at the beginning of the game, after which the amazing sense of humour of the title makes itself known through the Tutorial. I was chuckling away through most of the game, while it doesn’t have elegant, clever or sophisticated jokes the tone of it really appealed to my immature sense of humour.

Even the character names have been made parodies of 80’s action movie stars, like Melanie Gibson and Jean Rambois, there is even a skateboarding dinosaur and an appearance from Merlin. It’s nice to see a game intentionally poke fun at itself. Super Time force has no shortage of that….

The gameplay is satisfying and surprisingly innovative for such a basic looking side-scroller. You start each level with a certain amount of time and have to reach the end before it gets to zero, you can pick up more time in certain drops as well as collectables and that’s all pretty standard.

Where Super Time Force comes into its own is the “Timeout” mechanic. You can rewind time at will and take control of a new playable character; this can be done when you make a mistake, you die or you need extra firepower and is invaluable when fighting the bosses. Your original character will still continue to follow out the commands that you gave him up until the point of the rewind, at that time if he has survived you can get your new character to pick up his essence and gain upgrades to your weapons. It is a fantastic mechanic and it is executed brilliantly.

There are seven missions that each have three stages, some of which will have a character that, if you save them, will join the Super Time Force. It really makes exploring the levels feel more important and rewarding. Enemy types are varied from armed robots to Medieval Knights and Dinosaurs.

The controls are very responsive and tight, this makes Super Time Force far more controllable than many of its fellow retro shooters. I have surprisingly few complaints about how the game handles. My one minor complaint about the Super Time Force is the lack of any multiplayer, I imagine it would be almost impossible to have two human controlled players on the game at once given the “Timeout” system but its absence is felt.

The graphics in Super Time force are surprisingly entertaining and even with the retro 80’s look it still manages to hold its own in its genre. The backdrops are colourful and unique with enemies that are easily distinguishable from each other. Playable characters also have very unique looks and the different attacks are diverse enough as to not become boring.

While there’s no voice acting in Super Time Force the arcade music completely sets the scene. Everything about this game screams retro throwback and, for me, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can buy Super Time Force on the Xbox Marketplace for £11.99. I initially thought the price tag was a little high for an indie title however after playing the game I think it is entirely justified. With multiple play-throughs, collectables and three stages per level it is definitely worth the cost.

You certainly get your money’s worth, with multiple playable characters there are several ways you can approach missions. When you complete each level your score is recorded on the leaderboard and you can replay missions as often as you like to get top billing. There are also collectables that are scattered around each level, often these will only show up once you initiate a “Timeout” so there is plenty of reason to go back and revisit levels you have already completed.

EDITOR AT MOUSE N JOYPAD.
Scott "Tickles" Davidson lives in Fife in Scotland and between playing video games and rage-quitting he tends to spend the rest of his time in preparation for the inevitable zombie outbreak.

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